Extremophile microbes use quorum sensing to coordinate population-level behaviour even under conditions of extreme heat, cold, salinity or acidity.
A new review maps signalling across thermophiles, psychrophiles, halophiles and acidophiles, showing that these organisms produce and detect autoinducer molecules whose accumulating concentration provides local information about population density. Conserved signalling families include LuxI/LuxR-type systems and several chemically distinct autoinducers, allowing colonies to switch collective behaviours such as biofilm formation once local signalling crosses an effective threshold.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13568-026-02119-0
